The present invention relates generally to the field of locking devices for telephones, and more particularly, is directed to an ear piece locking device to prevent unauthorized telephone calls from a selected, protected instrument.
Telephone instruments of the type popularly now in use include generally in combination a hand carried portion containing a speaker or transmitting end and a receiver or hearing end and a base including a receiver cradle and either a pushbutton or circular type dialing system. In the case of large private and semi-public areas, for example, in businsess offices, it is the usual practice to install numerous telephone instruments throughout for use by employees during business hours. Many of these telephones are located in relatively quiet areas during the day and are usually completely unprotected at night. Such telephones have frequently been subject to abuse and there are numerous documented instances wherein unauthorized persons have utilized such available telephones to make costly long-distance calls, completely unknown to and unauthorized by the owner of the business or other premises.
Accordingly, in order to prevent such unauthorized telephone use, various types of locking devices have been developed by prior workers in the art and these devices usually include such protecting constructions as a dial lock, a speaker cover, a cradle protecting device or the like. While the prior art locking systems have proved effective to a considerable degree, it has been found that the prior art devices are usually designed for use with a single type of instrument and that a locking device that may successfully employed upon the telephone instrument construction of one manufacturer will not necessarily be effective to protect the telephone instrument of a second manufacturer, or even different models of the same manufacturer.
Accordingly, the need remains to provide an efficient telephone protection system that can be easily and effectively employed to prevent unauthorized calls in a wide variety of telephone instrument designs.